CELEBRITY FRIDAY: U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) Announces Retirement

The political landscape of Southern California is recovering from an announcement that has the impact of an earthquake: a sitting Congressman announced his retirement. 20-term incumbent Henry Waxman announced on Thursday that after spending 40 years in Congress he wants to do something else with his life. Waxman represents California's 33rd district which includes the "West Side" of Los Angeles, and is one of the wealthiest Congressional districts in California (and thus the nation).

The sudden appearance of an open seat to a high-profile position of Congressperson without the possibility of term limits will surely be attractive to many local politicians. The Los Angeles Times runs down the list of people expected to run for this heavily Democratic seat:

Potential contestants include state Sens. Ted Lieu of Torrance and Fran Pavley of Agoura Hills; Assemblyman Richard Bloom of Santa Monica; Secretary of State Debra Bowen, a former South Bay lawmaker; local radio host Matt Miller; women's rights activist Sandra Fluke — all Democrats — and Manhattan Beach businessman Bill Bloomfield, an independent and former Republican who spent $7 million of his own money in an unsuccessful 2012 race against Waxman. 

Even before the congressman announced his 20th term would be his last, two other political independents had stated their plans to run: Brent Roske, a television producer and director, and Marianne Williamson, the author of several self-help books. 

Amid Thursday's swirl of rumors and speculation, with fresh names surfacing almost hourly, a few possible contenders took themselves out of the race. 

Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he would not run. Sheila Kuehl, a former state senator and assemblywoman who represented the Westside and the Valley, and Bobby Shriver, a former mayor of Santa Monica and nephew of President Kennedy, both said they would continue their campaigns for a seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. 

The retiring supervisor they aim to replace, Zev Yaroslavsky, did not explicitly rule out a try for Waxman's seat but made it seem highly unlikely. "My first reaction is [that] to be a [congressional] freshman at the age of 65 is not something I've longed to do all my life," Yaroslavsky said.

Open Congressional seats are very rare indeed and this should be a fascinating race. Wendy Greuel, who lost the 2013 Los Angeles Mayor's race to Eric Garcetti last May announced her intention to run almost immediately, while State Senator Ted Lieu waited until Friday to do so, and included several high-profile endorsements of politicians who represent pieces of the 33rd District.

Lesbian Mayor Of Houston Re-Elected To 3rd Term!

This week Annise Parker was re-elected as Mayor of Houston, Texas for a third and final term. Parker is the first openly LGBT chief executive of a Top 10 city.

With 35% of precincts reporting Tuesday night, Parker had secured 57% of the vote compared with 28% for Hall. Hall conceded less than two hours after the polls closed when early returns showed Parker securing the 50% threshold needed to avoid a runoff.

Parker's victory is in contrast to high-profile losses by other female candidates running for Mayor of major cities in 2013 such as Christine Quinn in New York City and Wendy Greuel in Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Times analyzes why Parker won:

“The mayor has an image as a technocrat, a policy wonk, not an in-your-face left-wing activist. She’s not someone who really alienates conservatives,” said Mark Jones, chair of the political science department at Rice University in Houston.

While Hall lived in a mansion just outside Houston until last year, Parker graduated from Rice, worked in the oil and gas industry and lived with her domestic partner, Kathy Hubbard, and three children in an older home in the city’s historic Heights neighborhood.

Parker started out as a gay activist in college, was president of the Houston GLBT Political Caucus and has been open about her family, attending black-tie events with Hubbard. But, Jones said, “she doesn’t make a political issue out of it.”

“She’s first and foremost a mayor who focuses on policy,” he said. “Her life is one that people in Houston can really identify with.”

Before she was first elected mayor in 2009, Parker served on the City Council and as Houston controller. During her first mayoral term, she handled budget cuts without raising taxes, which Jones said earned her respect from conservative and centrist voters.

Congratulations to Mayor Parker!

L.A. MAYOR 2013: Eric Garcetti Sworn In!

My hometown has a new Mayor! Eric Garcetti was sworn in as the 42nd Mayor of Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon before a crowd of Angelenos in Grand Park. Garcetti, 42, is the youngest person to be sworn in as mayor in more than a century and is the first Jewish man to serve in that capacity. Garcetti is the second consecutive Latino mayor of Los Angeles, succeeding Antonio Villaraigosa. He earned a hard-fought electoral win over Los Angeles City Controller Wendy Greuel on May 21.

Congratulations, Eric!

L.A. MAYOR 2013: Election Today! Garcetti 48, Greuel 41

Today, besides being my 45th birthday, is also an important day because it is also Election Day for the next Mayor of Los Angeles. Eric Garcetti, 42, and Wendy Greuel, 51, are the two candidates competing in the run-off today. Garcetti, who this blog has endorsed, has been leading in almost every poll published since the March primary, but turnout is expected to be very low in today's general election so the result is still very much in doubt although recent polls also show that among people who have already voted by mail (like yours truly) Garcetti leads 48% to 42%, and 48% to 41% in how people say they intend to vote.

The survey, conducted from Tuesday through Thursday, showed a narrowing of the race since a survey a month earlier by the same researchers gave Garcetti a 10-point lead over Greuel. 

[...] 

They are vying to replace Democratic Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is stepping down after eight years because of term limits. 

The non-partisan campaign has centered on what Greuel and Garcetti agree is a dire financial outlook facing America's second most populous metropolis, and the political clout commanded by the city's public employee unions. 

[...] 

The latest USC Price/LA Times poll indicated Garcetti had built a lead by forging an unusual coalition of liberal and conservative supporters and by winning over voters in the suburban and largely middle-class San Fernando Valley, which had been expected to be Greuel's stronghold.

Garcetti also has a slight lead in money spent, $9.4 million to  $8.9 million but has had more cash on hand in the final stretch than his opponent, but outside groups (mostly unions of city employees) have been breaking records to spend money to support Greuel, who is considered the slightly more conservative candidate.

I think Garcetti is going to take it (and I hope he does) but don't forget about the other races. Openly gay Ron Galperin is running for Los Angeles City Controller (against Dennis Zine) and openly gay David Vela is running for Los Angeles Community College District (Seat #6) against incumbent Nancy Pearlman. Progressive and very strong straight LGBT ally Mike Feuer is running against Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich. As for the three(!) marijuana measures on the ballot, I voted  Yes on Measure D and No on Measure E and No on Measure F.

2013 L.A. Municipal Election: My Ballot Choices

The 2013 Los Angeles City municipal election day is May 21 (my birthday!) exactly two weeks from today, although of course, since most likely more than half the ballots will be cast by mail the election is really going on right now. Hopefully the turnout will not be as horrendously low as the estimated 21% in the March 5, 2013.

Anyway, this is how I am voting:

• Mayor: Eric Garcetti. 

• City Attorney: Mike Feuer. 

• Controller: Ron Galperin*. 

• Los Angeles Community College District (Seat No. 6): David Vela*.  

• City of Los Angeles Measures 

• Proposition C (Resolution In Support of Constitutional Amendments Regarding Limits on Political Campaign Spending and Rights of Corporations): Yes. 

• Proposition D (Medical Marijuana Regulation and Taxation): Yes. 

• Proposition E (Medical Marijuana Regulation and Taxation): No. 

• Proposition F (Medical Marijuana Regulation and Taxation): No.

The candidates marked with an asterisk* are openly gay. Yes, there are not one, not two, but three medical marijuana initiatives on the 2013 City of Los Angeles municipal ballot.

Of course my voting record is provided here for informational purposes only. You should make your own choices for whom and what you will cast your own ballot.

L.A. MAYOR 2013: Garcetti Leads Greuel In Polls

The runoff election for Mayor of Los Angeles is on Tuesday May 21, exactly one month from today. Former City Council President Eric Garcetti, the MadProfessah-endorsed candidate, leads former City Controller Wendy Greuel (the Bill Clinton-endorsed candidate) in three separate polls published in the race, from 7 to 10 points. However two of these surveys were the little-respected computer-generated polls by SurveyUSA, released on March 28 (47-40) and April 12 (49-40).

The much more prestigious Los Angeles Times/USC poll is the latest poll to show Garcetti in the lead:

The survey also found no sign of success for Greuel's effort to gain an edge among women by highlighting her potential to make history as the city's first female mayor. Women preferred Garcetti, 50% to 41%.

Latinos and younger voters backed Garcetti by still wider margins. The city councilman from Silver Lake has strengthened his standing in the central city and Eastside neighborhoods that he won decisively in the March primary. He has also built a solid lead on the Westside — a key target of Greuel's.

Perhaps most worrisome for Greuel, the city controller, is her failure so far to establish a base in the Valley, where the two are effectively tied. Greuel, who lives in Studio City, had hoped that audits by her office that found wasteful spending of taxpayer money would appeal to the Valley's Republicans, often a pivotal vote in L.A. elections.

Instead, Garcetti has emerged with a lopsided lead among conservatives citywide, picking up support from many of those who voted in the primary for Republican radio personality Kevin James, now a Garcetti backer.

 In fact, every single one of the major candidates in the March 5 primary election (Jan Perry, Kevin James and Emmanuel Pleitez) has endorsed Garcetti for Mayor as has almost every single member of the current Los Angeles City Council, even though Greuel was herself a Councilmember from 2002 to 2009.

To me it is very telling that the people Greuel worked with on the City Council, as well as the people she beat all are choosing someone else over her to be the next Mayor of Los Angeles.

The two are relatively similar on many key Democratic policy positions (LGBT equality, reproductive rights, environmentalism, immigration, gun control) but Garcetti would be the one who would more firmly embrace the "progressive" label. And he has already played the Mayor of L.A. (multiple times) on television:

After May 21, Garcetti can be called Mr. Mayor in real life, too.

Bill Clinton Endorses Gruel For L.A. Mayor

The race for the mayor of Los Angeles, the nation's 2nd largest city, is flying under the radar of most political observers. Election day is exactly 8 weeks away from tomorrow (on May 21, my birthday!) and the only two names on the ballot are are Eric Garcetti (whom I have endorsed) and Wendy Greuel.

Greuel just snagged a big name endorsement: Bill Clinton.

I'm proud to support Wendy Greuel for Mayor of Los Angeles. 

Throughout her career, whether in the public or private sector, Wendy has been a smart, dedicated, and creative problem-solver. She knows how to make government work for ordinary people, and she's been doing it for decades, not only when times are good, but especially during periods of crisis.

I saw this strength of Wendy's first-hand in 1994, when she was a valued member of my administration's Department of Housing and Urban Development. When the Northridge Earthquake struck -- causing so much loss of life and destruction -- Wendy sprang into action. She helped deliver over a billion dollars in federal emergency aid to Los Angeles residents and worked around the clock to assist families who lost their homes.

In her many years of public service in Los Angeles, first in Mayor Bradley's office, through her tenure on the City Council, and now as City Controller, Wendy has personified good, honest, and effective government, improving the lives of countless Angelenos while saving millions of their tax dollars.

And she's not done yet.

Los Angeles is a great city with equally great challenges, so it's vital that Angelenos elect a proven, creative problem solver to lead them. That's Wendy Greuel. I urge you to join me in supporting her for Mayor of Los Angeles.

I suspect this endorsement is about keeping his wife's chances of being elected president in 2016 viable; it would look great if the top two cities in the country (New York and Los Angeles) both had female mayors when the first female President was elected.

Jus sayin'

2013 L.A. Municipal Election: Analyzing The Results

The results of yesterday's Los Angeles Municipal elections are in and it looks like Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel will be competing in the May 21 runoff (on my birthday!) The Los Angeles Times (and MadProfessah) had endorsed Garcetti, so we are happy about this result. Even if he loses and Greuel is Mayor, history would be made in having the first female Mayor of one of the Big 3 cities (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago), so as a feminist I would not be totally displeased with the result. Surprisingly, an openly gay candidate (who also happens to be a Republican) Kevin James looks to be placing third, which must be somewhat embarrassing for Jan Perry who seems to be coming in fourth place.

Here's what the results look like so far:

Garcetti is firstwith 32.9% of the vote, which is pretty good in basically a 5-person feel, more than 10,000 votes ahead of Greuel with 29.2% which is not too shabby either. James and Perry are just over 1,000 votes apart so its possible that margin could tighten.

In other important news, Mike Bonin was able to win his former boss's City Council District 11 seat, ensuring that the body will continue to have an openly gay member on it with an overwhelming 62% of the vote. In fact, it is likely that the 15-member body may have two openly gay members. In Garcetti's City Council District 13, openly gay Mitch O'Farrell (18.6%, 3535 votes) is a few hundred votes ahead of John Choi (16.4%, 3158 votes) while two other openly gay candidates Matt Szabo and Alexander Cruz de Ocampo failed to make the run-off. This was a disappointing result for Szabo, who was a Deputy Mayor in the Villaraigosa regime.

Openly gay candidate Ron Galperin (37.1%) is just squeaking ahead of City Councilman Dennis Zine (37.0%) to replace Greuel as Los Angeles City Controller.

In West Hollywood, openly gay members Jeffrey Prang and John Duran won re-election to the 5-member council, which will maintain its longtime openly gay majority.

LA TIMES Endorses Eric Garcetti For Mayor

The primary election for Los Angeles Mayor is in exactly 14 days, on Tuesday March 7, 2013. MadProfessah has endorsed Eric Garcetti, not just because he used to teach at Occidental College, where I am a mathematics professor, but simply because he was the first person to ask me, way back in October 2012, to endorse his candidacy for Mayor.

There is not much to separate the three major Democratic candidates, Garcetti, Wendy Greuel and Jan Perry regarding LGBT issues and other progressive issues that are important to me. That being said, the Stonewall Democrats, the Los Angeles-area LGBT Democratic club has endorsed Garcetti while the Los Angeles County Democratic Party was unable to come to consensus on an endorsement.

This past Sunday, the Los Angeles Times also endorsed Garcetti:

Los Angeles is an underachieving city led in recent decades by a succession of underachieving mayors — people who came in with big dreams or big talk but soon got bored with the day-to-day task of steering a municipality. Voters don't get to conduct a casting call or sift through hundreds of applicants until they identify the ideal candidate, but must instead choose from a field prescreened by the political and fundraising processes. This year that field fails to include a candidate who stands out as the obviously superior choice. The task for voters then becomes to scrutinize track records, eliminate the worst hazards and seek potential that can be forged, with the proper pressure and continued voter vigilance, into accomplishment.

The candidate with the most potential to rise to the occasion and lead Los Angeles out of its current malaise and into a more sustainable and confident future is Eric Garcetti.

Read the full endorsement yourself. Do you agree?

2013 L.A. City Elections: The Mayoral Contenders

The four main contenders for the Mayor of Los Angeles are City Controller Wendy Greuel, 51, City Councilmember Eric Garcetti, 41, Councilmember Jan Perry, 58, and gay Republican  Kevin James, 49.

The Los Angeles Times breaks down the race:

Greuel claims an advantage because she's the only candidate to have won a citywide contest. She's landed endorsements from a number of prominent Latino politicians, as well as Democratic Sen.Barbara Boxer and entertainment titans Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, who ran the DreamWorks motion picture studios when she was an executive there.

Her campaign believes that female voters will also be key, galvanized by the potential of electing the first female mayor in city history. Taken together, it's a coalition that will get her to the general election, Greuel campaign strategist John Shallman says, and then give her the win, probably against Garcetti.

Garcetti's camp isn't conceding anything. Son of former Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, he is backed by the Latino Coalition of Los Angeles-PAC and recently won an important endorsement from the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley.

He identifies himself as half Latino, the grandson of Mexican immigrants, and often addresses Latino audiences in fluent Spanish. Although he now lives in Silver Lake, he's a Valley boy, having grown up in Encino before leaving for college at Columbia.

[...]

Perry believes she'll draw not only the 10% to 13% of votes cast by African Americans, but also fiscal conservatives who like her tough-on-unions talk and pivotal council role in shaping downtown redevelopment.

When people find out she's Jewish, her share of that vote grows dramatically, Perry says, citing internal polling. She also thinks she'll do well among working-class white women and Latinas, who see her as an aspirational figure.

[...]

James, the only candidate to support Riordan's proposal to switch new city workers from defined pensions into self-managed 401(k)-style retirement plans, said he would emphasize that stance and his status as the only major candidate not embedded in the City Hall establishment.

GOP ad man Fred Davis recently created a Super PAC to independently support James, and the candidate also believes he'll draw backing from voters disaffected with City Hall.

However, political analysts say a big infusion of outside cash could end up hurting instead of helping the race's only Republican candidate. Los Angeles is largely Democratic, liberal and suspicious of large sums spent to frame a campaign.

The primary election is March 5, 2013 with the run off on May 21, 2013 (my birthday!)

A Gay Republican Mayor of Los Angeles?

Kevin James is a former conservative radio talk-show host and gay Republican who has declared his candidacy for Mayor of Los Angeles. The Mayoral primary election is March 5, 2013 and James is facing off against three other declared Democratic candidates, former City Council president Eric Garcetti, City councilwoman Jan Perry and City Controller Wendy Greuel. Millionaire real-estate developed Rick Caruso declined to join the race in October 2012.

Currently, Garcetti is considered the slight front-runner in the race, which is confirmed by fundraising totals which show him slightly ahead of Greuel and both way ahead of Perry.

Los Angeles City Councilman Eric Garcetti has raised $2.87 million for his mayoral bid, edging ahead of City Controller Wendy Greuel by about $72,000 in the search for campaign cash, according to figures released Wednesday by the two campaigns.

Garcetti raised $664,000 in the three months ended Sept. 30, compared with $592,000 collected by Greuel, who has taken in $2.8 million since launching her campaign.

[...]

Garcetti reported $2.35 million still available in his coffers, compared with $2.25 million for Greuel.

Meanwhile, Councilwoman Jan Perry reported raising $1.3 million since the start of her campaign, including more than $150,000 over the last three months. Perry said she wasn't worried about her third-place position in the money race.

"I will continue to raise money till election day," Perry said. "And I will have enough money to run my race in a competitive manner."

Former prosecutor Kevin James reported collecting a campaign total of $275,090 as of the end of last month. A fifth candidate, tech company executive Emanuel Pleitez, reported raising slightly more than $110,000 since joining the race in July.

If no candidate gets more than 50% on March 5, there will be a run-off between the two top vote-getters on May 21, 2013 (my birthday!)

The latest wrinkle in the money race is a report this weekend that a Super PAC run by a Republican political operative says it may spend $4 million to promote Kevin James' candidacy.

Looking to dramatically tip the scales in the race for Los Angeles' next mayor, a nationally prominent Republican media strategist has formed a "super PAC" that aims to spend millions of dollars to elect dark-horse mayoral candidate Kevin James.

Fred Davis, a GOP advertising man who has worked on campaigns for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, U.S. Senate hopeful Carly Fiorina and former President George W. Bush, said the Better Way LA committee has raised nearly $500,000 on behalf of James and plans to collect at least $3.5 million more.

Will Republicans in Los Angeles (and California) really rally behind a openly gay candidate for Mayor? And is Kevin James going to become the first openly LGBT head of a major city after openly lesbian Annise Parker of Houston?

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is termed out and can not run for re-election.

Saturday Politics: L.A. Mayoral Race Heating Up

Garcetti (left), Greuel (center) and Yarosalvsky (right) are
statistically tied in a poll of voter preferences for L.A. Mayor

The Los Angeles Times reported on the upcoming March 2013 primary election to become the next Mayor of Los Angeles earlier this week by discussing the results of a poll of the presumptive and announced candidates. Former Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti, Los Angeles City Controller Wendy Greuel, Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, Los Angeles City Councilmember Jan Perry and former investment banker Austin Beutner are the names most people are discussing to replace current mayor Antonio Villaraigosa when he is termed out in July 2013.

The poll of 1605 randomly selected Angelenos (with roughly equal numbers of "Whites," "Blacks," "Asians" and "Latinos") was conducted February 1 to March 2, 2012 by Loyola Marymount University's Leavey Center for the Study of Los Angeles has some interesting results:

The first feature which jumps out the viewer is the whopping 65.75% who respond they do not know who they prefer to be mayor. Of the remaining 34.25% who did have a response, the results are: 22.19% Garcetti, 21.74% Greuel, 19.11% Yaroslavsky, 17.06% Perry all closely lumped together. In fact, if you consider the margin of error of the poll is ±2.89 percentage points the four are essentially statistically tied.

Another curious feature of the race to be Mayor is that Yaroslavsky has not even announced that he is actually running. The three current and former councilmembers (Greuel, Garcetti and Perry) have been officially or unofficially running for the better part of a year (if not longer). The thing is, it is unlikely that any political types in Los Angeles will be able to focus on the Mayoral race until after the federal elections are decided in November, meaning that it will basically be a 4-month sprint to the finish from November 7th 2012 to March 5, 2013.

Los Angeles CD-2 Election Today: Paul Krekorian

Today is the decision day for the 2nd District Los Angeles City Council race between businesswoman Christine Essel and Assemblymember Paul Krekorian, the top two finishers in the September 22nd special election. The seat became vacant when Wendy Greuel was elected City Controller in July. If Krekorian is elected (as MadProfessah hopes) then there will be another special election to replace his seat in the 43rd Assembly district. Greuel has endorsed Essel to replace her.

Most LGBT activists, most notably the Stonewall Democrats (of which MadProfessah is an elected steering committee member) are rooting for Krekorian to win. John Cleary, Stonewall President wrote the following letter of support for LGBT Democrats and their allies in the 2nd City Council District:

This is a very important time in our city and we need a leader who will listen to our concerns and act on our behalf. On December 8, we hope you will support Paul Krekorian for Los Angeles City Council. Paul has received the strong endorsement of Stonewall Democratic Club, Stonewall Young Democrats, and Senator Mark Leno because Paul has always been a trusted friend of our community and a strong advocate on issues that matter to us.

Senator Mark Leno, Chair of the Legislative LGBT Caucus, said “Paul Krekorian has always been a trusted friend of the LGBT community and a leader on the issues that matter to us. Paul was a coauthor of my bill, AB 43, the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act, and he fervently opposed Prop. 8. Paul Krekorian believes in and will fight for equality for all, and he deserves your support.”

Paul was a strong ally in our fight in opposition to Proposition 8. He was also among the group of legislators who filed an amicus brief in support of marriage equality with the California Supreme Court.

In addition, Paul has a lifetime 100% voting record from Equality California and was a coauthor of a Senate Joint Resolution that called for an end to “Don't Ask, Don't Tell.”

Paul has been a longtime board member of the AIDS Community Action Foundation. He was the author of AB 1894, mandating that health insurers pay for HIV/AIDS testing in all settings, regardless of primary diagnosis.

Paul Krekorian is the right person at the right time to serve on the City Council. He is also the only candidate with a proven track record of fighting for our community. Please join me in supporting Paul on December 8.

There are 123,750 registered voters in the 2nd City Council District, and nearly 10,000 absentee ballots have been returned. Overall turnout is expected to be about 20%.

Below is the PDF of the actual letter sent out to 5,000 residents of LA CD-2.
Krekorian Support Letter